Bend to Avoid Breaking
by Rhino7
Summary: It takes nothing short of a not-so-natural disaster to bring their long-standing argument to its apex. Now Leon and Cloud are trapped under the rubble while the Restoration Committee scrambles to get them out in time.


**Bend to Avoid Breaking**

**By Rhino7**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This oneshot is mine. If you've read any of my Restoration Committee fics, you'll know that I write Leon and Cloud as functioning frienemies. There is no love lost between them…So this is merely an attempt to begin bridging the gap between these two as less-than-friends.**

**There will be no hugs or matching bracelets. Just snark and pain. My other goal of this piece was to work on my man-to-man dynamics. So please let me know if their interaction is unrealistic, realistic, too dry, or not surly enough. Thirdly, I just got to have some fun beating them up a little. Join me.**

**..:-X-:..**

The air smelled like concrete.

It was thick and acrid and, coupled with the taste of blood and dirt in his mouth, almost overwhelmed Cloud's gag reflex.

That was all that crossed his mind in the first second of regaining consciousness.

Then the next second passed and his other senses started to return.

Pain was radiating up and down his spine, like a sledgehammer to his nervous system with every heart beat. Nothing sharp, no single direct starting point for the pain…which was…good, he supposed. The minimal shifting of his limbs seemed to echo that reasoning. Nothing felt broken, except maybe a few ribs, but…geez…did he get hit by a truck or something?

He coughed once to clear his throat of the gunk that had managed to get in his mouth. Testing his joints, he pushed himself up off his stomach and looked around. The area around him was pitch black at first, and he blinked several times to get his vision to adjust more quickly.

As his eyes got used to the darkness, he was able to make out masses around him. Sharp, angular, jagged shapes for at least the five feet that he could see. Feeling half-blind, he got up on his knees and lifted a hand, finding a ceiling of some sort just a foot above his head. There was a tear in one of his gloves, from the tip of the thumb to the wrist. Whatever had torn the material had also skidded through the skin of his forearm, just deep enough to draw blood.

Coughing again, he sat back in a squat and looked himself over more thoroughly. Aside from the shallow scrape on his arm, he discovered rock abrasions littering his right side and his hip, probably from landing on that part of his body, and both of his knees had been slashed open by shrapnel. There was also blood splattered across his other arm, but considering his own wounds, the blood wasn't his.

He was slightly nauseated by that thought and made sure he wasn't actively bleeding anywhere before trying to move again. The only light seemed to be coming from two or three openings in the debris ceiling, and even then it was dim moonlight.

What time was it?

He dismissed the irrelevant question with a short shake of the head and scanned his surroundings again. The gritty taste of plaster and blood was enough to raise bile and he barely had enough saliva to spit out some of the gunk.

Rubble shifted somewhere close and he stilled momentarily.

"—lo?" He croaked hoarsely, then cleared his throat and tried again. "Hello?"

His voice bounced off the slabs of concrete in a fade-away echo.

A shower of sparks spewed from an open power line somewhere, and in the brief light, he spotted half of a vending machine, accordioned where the ceiling of the cave slumped downward to meet the uneven floor. Most of the innards of the machine were gone or unrecognizable, but there were at least three surviving bottles of water hanging in the dispensing spirals.

What the Hell had happened?

He tried to remember, but the strain of recollecting only served to let more pain balloon over his skull. But unless he could remember what had happened and where he was, getting out of here alive was going to prove tricky.

Ten seconds of squinting his eyes closed and concentrating only got him snapshots of memories: a flash of fire, a terrified woman pointing through the window…the window of the parking garage, Tifa looking back with horrified eyes, and the entire building coming apart at the seams around him.

Something moved in the same general direction as the first noise and Cloud snapped back to attention.

He was in the parking garage in Radiant Garden…or what used to be the parking garage…Something had happened…An attack? An explosion of some kind…And he remembered Tifa being there…

The distinct sound of someone coughing carried over the clutter and Cloud spun to face the origin of the sound.

"Ti-Tifa?" He coughed again, getting his balance on his feet, but the low ceiling and uneven terrain forced him to remain in a crouch.

Two moans—one of pain and one of anger—lapsed over each other and Cloud shuffled forward, tracking the sound to the source. The floor sloped downward and the debris lumped to one side. He had to grab onto the wall and lean at a nearly 45 degree angle to wriggle through the opening toward the sound.

Several realizations simultaneously crashed through his head as he found the open air pocket. One: he'd found two survivors. Two: one of them was Leon. Three: one of Leon's arms was smashed under a mass of concrete, pinning him on his back. Four: the other survivor was bleeding out from a wound to the neck. Five: Leon was close enough to touch the wound, but not close enough to put effective pressure on it.

Cloud nearly tripped over himself as he maneuvered over the debris wall to reach the bleeding stranger, who had fallen still. Leon cursed and then spotted him.

"Carotid artery." He rasped, just as hoarse as Cloud had been.

"Dammit." Cloud had to climb over Leon's legs to reach the stranger, a middle-aged woman under the ash and the blood.

Leon moved his hand out of the way and Cloud started to put pressure on the neck wound, but the woman's eyes were open and staring blankly at the ceiling. Throat knotting, he shifted closer and leaned in, but couldn't detect any breathing. Two fingers to the less mutilated side of her neck revealed no pulse.

"She's dead." He wheezed, slumping back to his seat.

Leon was breathing heavily, and by the amount of blood around the corpse and the unnatural spatter of it on the ground, Leon had been trying to stop the bleeding from the get-go. Cloud grimaced at the gaping neck wound. The smell of blood had filled the small space.

The other man thrashed once against his trapped limb. "Damn, son of a bitch!" He yelled. "Fuck!" He kicked at the concrete, but the debris didn't give. "Shit." He exhaled heavily.

Cloud left him alone, looking around the rest of the air pocket. There were no other bodies that he could see. There was not much of anything else that he could see. No tunnels or other means of getting out from here…and the place where he'd woken up had been just as walled off.

Whatever had happened…they were both trapped here.

Leon soon stopped moving. His rage had no outlet, so it burned out quickly and left him lying there, pinned under the concrete, like a ragdoll. The concrete that had landed just above his elbow was separate from the other slabs that had connected to form the ceiling of one level of the parking garage. In fact, it looked marginally moveable…but with no room to gain purchase or brace any leverage, there looked to be no way of moving it entirely.

"Okay…" Cloud found himself sweating in the enclosed space. "Are you…are you bleeding?"

Leon made a fist and seethed for a moment before opening his eyes. "No."

"Good." He replied, but glanced over the rest of his body just in case.

There were no bones sticking out at unnatural angles or any sharp debris protruding from anywhere. In fact, Leon looked to be in better condition that Cloud…sans the hundred pound weight across his arm.

"Did you…find anyone else?" Leon croaked, coughing a few times and staring determinedly at the ceiling above him.

Cloud shook his head. "No. I just woke up through there." He nodded toward the crevice in the wall. "What the Hell happened?"

The other man closed his eyes, "Meteor…shower…"

"Hey." Cloud swatted his arm. "Stay with me here."

"Not going anywhere." Leon mumbled, opening his eyes again. "Arm's trapped, dumbass."

Cloud let the comment roll off and tore away the single sleeve on his left arm, tugging away the material and setting it down. Leon wordlessly started trying to reach into his pocket, wrangling out his cell phone. Cloud left him to it as he closed the woman's eyes and covered her face and neck with the sleeve material, out of sight.

"Any luck?" He commented, digging out his own phone.

"No signal." Leon remarked, eying the phone.

Cloud's phone was cracked and the top half fell away when he tried to open it. The device was probably all that had saved him from a broken hip, he thought dryly, tossing it aside.

"See if you can get this thing off me." Leon tried and failed again to grapple with the concrete pinioning his arm to the rocky floor.

"Right." Cloud carefully shuffled over, ignoring the protest in his shredded knees as he ran his fingers along the concrete mass, trying to find a grip or at least some weak point.

There was no getting around it, and with Leon stuck on his back right there in front of it, Cloud had barely any room to get any footholds to shove at the mass. After a minute of getting familiar with the block, he braced one knee on the most flat part of the floor he could find, and braced the other foot beside Leon's hip.

Lifting the mass was out of the question. There was simply no space to maneuver. But maybe he could shift it up enough for Leon to shimmy out from under it. He'd need at least two inches…That arm had to be shattered to the fingertips, if the fingertips were still attached. Pushing that thought aside, he got a grip on one edge of the mass and gritted his teeth.

He gave it a test lift, tried to move it for the sake of gauging what he was dealing with here. There was an incremental nudge in the concrete, but not near enough to measure.

"I'll try to lift it long enough for you to pull your arm out." He said after a quick assessment. "It's going to hurt."

"Just do it." Leon growled, visibly trying to keep his breathing even.

Cloud checked his grip again. "One, two, three."

He leaned into the concrete and tried to shove upward. It was immediately clear that the mass was going nowhere fast, and he didn't have enough adrenaline to miraculously toss the thing out of the way. Even as that became apparent, Leon shoved against the wall, trying to tear his arm free with willpower alone.

"Stop." Cloud released the unmoving block, his hands screaming at him for the treatment. "You're going to rip your arm out at this rate."

Leon pulled and shoved at the wall for another few seconds before ceasing, out of breath. "Dammit." He was sweating too by now. "Did it move at all?"

"I got about a centimeter." Cloud replied. "There's barely any room to move it."

"Then blow it off." Leon glared at the concrete. "Use a thunder spell to blast it apart or something."

It was panic talking, and Cloud shook his head, "Could cause a cave in. There's no way to know how sound this structure is. Can't risk it."

Leon fumed, but seemed to hear the logic because he didn't immediately retort.

"Who else was in the garage?" He finally asked.

Cloud made an absent gesture. "I barely remember being in the garage in the first place…I remember Tifa, but she was outside…looking back this way."

Leon strained against the concrete again, only serving to tire himself out faster. "You're…sure?"

Cloud wasn't sure at all, but there was nothing Leon could do at that point besides injure himself further if he thought Tifa was trapped in this mess somewhere. In all truth, the fact that she might be in here, trapped or hurt, was driving him mad inside. But without knowing how stable this place was or how close they were to an escape, he couldn't leave Leon like this.

"Yeah." He muttered. "It's just you and me stuck down here."

"Lucky us." Leon grunted, bending one knee as the leg fell asleep. "What about you? Are you bleeding anywhere?"

Cloud shook his head once, glancing back toward the crevice. "Nothing serious. Hey, keep trying to get a call through." He shifted backwards toward the opening into the second air pocket.

"While you do what?" Leon remarked, lifting his head slightly to follow his movements.

"There was a smashed up vending machine in the other opening." He replied. "Who knows how long we'll be down here; could use the water."

Leon lifted his phone again and Cloud turned away, shuffling through the opening back into the pocket where he had woken up earlier. The thin columns of light were still present, much brighter than the area where Leon was. Moving at a crouch, he crossed over to the gutted vending machine. He managed to wriggle the three surviving bottles out of the machine and stuffed them in his pockets.

"Still nothing." Leon grunted as Cloud shimmied through the hole into the space again.

"The other space through there is higher ground." Cloud gestured, setting the bottles against one of the rocks to keep them from rolling away. "Let me see if I can get signal over there."

"Go for it." Leon coughed, handing over the phone.

Cloud took the device and opened one of the water bottles, handing it to him before shuffling into the other area. He got as close to the debris wall as he dared, peering up into the shafts of light. It was impossible to tell how deep they actually were; there wasn't enough light to gauge and it messed up his depth perception.

Flipping the phone open, he stretched his arm to hold the device as high as he could. He squinted at the screen, but the little symbol in the corner of it told him there was no signal. Exhaling, he closed the phone and looked up at the light again. He strained his ears, but couldn't hear anything to suggest people above them, digging or searching for survivors. They were probably just searching through a different section of the site.

But if there was a chance that somebody was close….

"Hey!" He barked up the hole. "Is there anybody out there?"

He listened hard again, but there was no response. No movement that his heightened sense of hearing could pick up on. Cursing inwardly, he navigated back toward the area where Leon was. This situation was getting more exasperating by the minute.

"Nothing." He said, setting the phone next to the bottles.

"I gathered that." Leon muttered. "And I take it screaming didn't help?"

Cloud frowned, taking up one of the unopened bottles of water and using a short sip to rinse the rest of his mouth free of the dirt and blood. It felt like he'd busted his bottom lip…or maybe bitten his tongue.

"Meteor shower probably took out the service towers." Leon went on.

Cloud tilted his head, absently looking at a clump of debris. "Meteor shower, huh?"

Something about that didn't sit right.

"I saw a few of them hit the surrounding area before it hit this spot." Leon replied. "It was either meteors or Heartless kamikazes disguised as flaming rocks."

Cloud gave him a flat look at that. "You're a real smart ass sometimes."

"Yeah, well, you're just an ass." Leon retorted.

He huffed and didn't respond to that immediately. It was little secret that he and Leon didn't get along off the battlefield. In the heat of battle, with a common enemy, he trusted the man with his life, but as soon as the Heartless retreated, the alliance ended there. And just as little a secret was the reason why they tended to avoid each other: Tifa.

With Sephiroth on his tail and the darkness haunting him, Cloud had alienated himself from Tifa, Aerith, and anyone else who tried to get close to him. They were just safer that way. If Sephiroth thought he was alone, then he wouldn't target his friends or use them as leverage in a fight. There had been too many close calls with Tifa, who had been hot on his trail. Sephiroth had nearly killed her the time that she caught up to Cloud.

He couldn't bring himself to endanger them like that. And the things that he was forced to do to defeat Sephiroth, the person that he was forced to become to fight on Sephiroth's level…he didn't want his friends to see him like that. Aerith had at least tried to understand that, even if she still disapproved of him disappearing for weeks at a time.

Tifa was harder to convince. She had an iron will about these things. In a sticky spot, there was no one else Cloud would rather have at his back, but he couldn't fight Sephiroth as part of a team. Not this time. He had a hard enough time keeping himself alive against the one winged angel; keeping himself alive and protecting his allies at the same time was impossible.

So he had left…No explanation, no goodbyes, and no apologies. He had disappeared from Radiant Garden for nearly a month. And Tifa hated him for it. By the time he had put the past behind him and recovered enough to return to Radiant Garden, she had all but struck his name out of her memory.

"You're not exactly a party to be around either." Cloud snapped back.

Leon closed his eyes briefly and didn't respond for a moment. The rubble that he'd landed on was jagged and uneven, and even if there was no blood that Cloud could see under him, it had to be painfully uncomfortable. Not to mention his arm—

"Does that hurt?" He nodded toward the pinned limb.

Leon opened his eyes and followed Cloud's gesture. "Not too bad." He said dully.

"That's an upside." Cloud offered.

"Yeah," was the dry response. "My arm is so crushed that there's not enough blood flow to keep the nerves functioning. It's a real bonus."

Cloud rolled his eyes. "I'm just trying to—"

"I know what you're trying to do. Don't." Leon said firmly.

Cloud was really getting tired of this.

"If you'll notice," He growled, "I'm still here. I think that debunks your 'Cloud runs away from everything' theory."

"You're here because there's no way out." Leon grumbled back. "Don't try to sound noble."

Cloud glared down at him. "Is that what you really think? That I just run away from everything? I wasn't running away from Tifa last year. I was trying to defeat—"

"Your darkness, Sephiroth, blah, blah, I've heard it before." Leon cut him off. "You're not fooling anybody. Tifa and Aerith deserved better than you just disappearing like that."

"Don't act like you've never run away from something before." Cloud hissed.

They were fighting words, and Cloud had no doubt that Leon would have slugged him a good one if he'd been able to move. He settled for glaring.

When Cloud had returned to Radiant Garden after defeating the darkness, he had discovered a handful of revelations very quickly. Tifa was a master of holding a grudge. Aerith warmed up to him easily enough, but deep down he could tell she wasn't convinced that he was back for good this time. Tifa had turned to Leon as a go-to guy and friend, first just in Cloud's stead, and then as a genuine friend and…whatever else they had become in his absence.

That had been some time ago, and things were slowly getting better. Tifa had officially ended their friendship a few months ago, but since then, her cold attitude had started to thaw. She told him she was tired of holding a grudge and rather than stay mad at him, she just wanted him to stay away from her for a while. Of course, by then, Leon had unleashed the Ice Age of cold shoulders to Cloud.

With Tifa, it was all up front, in the open, aggressive and ugly…but then it would be over. With Leon, it was a slow burn…like a snowball picking up momentum as it careened downhill to a fiery pit…Maybe that was exaggerating, but Leon had made it clear that whatever thin friendship he and Cloud had had before, it was over now.

And Cloud couldn't fathom it. Aerith and Tifa—the ones he had wronged, the friends that he had abandoned—had forgiven him, but this high-and-mighty bastard refused to let it go. And if any of the old stories that he had heard about Leon were true, then the man had no right to judge Cloud for his faults. Cloud eventually chalked it all up to the fact that he and Leon just couldn't stand each other. It was as simple as that.

Except now they were stuck down here together for God only knew how long, and it was nowhere near simple anymore.

A tense silence had settled in the debris cave, and they were both too stubborn to break it.

Cloud's temper fizzled out in the quietness and he kept his eyes on the rocks, forcing his mind to more productive thinking…like how to either get out of here and bring help for Leon, or get Leon free so they could get out at the same time. Trying to get out on his own and bring help was more plausible, but the idea of leaving Leon pinned down here with the woman's body, particularly when the whole area could collapse anytime, made him feel sick. Frienemy or not, he couldn't bring himself to do that.

The nausea that had been present since he'd woken up flared and he swallowed hard to choke it back. Maybe it was all the what-ifs and Murphy's Law train of thought that was creeping up on him, but it felt like the turn in his gut was getting worse, almost painful. Between that and the headache that seemed to hit whenever he was around Leon for any period of time, he was starting to feel downright shitty.

"How far down are we?" Leon broke the silence, because both of them just sitting there was accomplishing nothing, and neither of them was very good with waiting to be rescued.

Cloud blinked through the sudden bout of lightheadedness and rubbed his temple. "Um, I couldn't—couldn't tell." He closed his eyes, drawing a slow breath.

"Great." was the flat response. "And you're sure that there's no way you could get out?"

"There are tons upon tons of concrete walling us in…I'm pretty damn sure." Cloud growled, coughing lightly as his breath shortened. "Y'know, for all the bitching you do about me leaving, you're pretty eager to make me go now."

"Escaping this mess to bring back more muscle and disappearing on Aerith and Tifa are two different things, dumbshit." Leon grunted. "You're not an idiot…just an emotional coward."

"Yeah, because you're such a carebear." Cloud growled.

"At least I can look them in the eye and tell them the truth." Leon said. "If you'd had the balls to just tell Tifa what was going on instead of hanging her out to dry—"

"Then what? She'd just let that go? Come on, you know Tifa," Biblically, Cloud mentally added. "There's no stopping her when she's on a mission."

"You are not her mission. You never were. She spent years trying to get through that thick skull of yours and get just one straight answer to one question, and you flaked." Leon jabbed.

Cloud exhaled heavily through his nose and looked down at the man. "I did what I had to do to keep both Tifa and Aerith safe. I already had this argument with her, and I'm in no mood to hash it out with you."

"This isn't even about leaving anymore." Leon snapped, but his glare would have been move effective if he had been at eye level. "This is about you refusing to tell her the truth."

"What truth?" Cloud felt copper hit the back of his throat, but he swallowed it back.

"You aren't in love with her." Leon spat it out. "You go on and on about protecting her and keeping her safe and not wanting her to get hurt, and then you turn around and sweep Aerith off her feet. And you wonder why Tifa gets pissed at you?"

Cloud gagged slightly as the pain and nausea started to burn through his stomach. "It was never my intention to lead her on like that. She was my best friend growing up. Maybe—Maybe there was something there at some point, but then we grew up." He sat up straighter. "Heartless came. I found Aerith. Sephiroth found me. Tifa found you…So why are you pissed at me now?"

Blood filled his mouth as he finished the sentence and he choked. He was barely able to turn sideways before vomiting a small puddle of bright red blood on the rocks. It burned all the way up his throat and was warm as it bubbled past his lips, disgusting enough to make him want to throw up again.

"Hey—" Leon sounded alarmed.

Cloud spat out a mouthful of blood before determining that no more was going to come up. Choking and wheezing to get his breath back, he sat up and rinsed his mouth out with a swill of water from the bottle.

"Dammit." Leon shifted awkwardly onto his side, getting his free hand at his items' belt. "Is that blood?"

Cloud considered lying, but the red puddle was in plain sight and incriminating. "Yeah."

"Lightheaded and nauseated?" Leon drilled.

Sitting back against the rock, Cloud could still taste the blood and grimaced. "Yeah."

"Dammit." He cursed again and there was a clink of glass. "Congratulations, you have internal bleeding."

Cloud glanced at him and winced again, not bothering to hide the pain anymore, because—Hell, he'd just vomited blood in front of the man. He wasn't fooling anybody. "How do you know?"

"I don't." Leon tugged a single Hi-Potion from his belt. "But hurling blood can only mean something isn't right inside. Here." He held out the healing item.

Cloud eyed the bottle and then looked to Leon, the mass crushing his arm, and the bottle again, before shaking his head. "No, it's passing. It's getting better. I can wait it out."

Leon lifted his head from the floor. "Don't try that. Internal bleeding doesn't show until it's bad enough. You've probably lost more blood than you think. This should mend it enough until we get out of here."

Cloud paused. "No. When we get that concrete off you, it's going to hurt like Hell and you might bleed out. We're both out of ether; Cure spells are impossible at this point. We should save the Hi-Potion until then."

Leon narrowed his eyes, "God, you're annoying." He glanced at his trapped arm and back to Cloud. "Then I'll stay trapped until the others find us. You're going to bleed out before I do anyway—"

"That arm won't survive that long." He pointed out.

"Then they'll cut it off." Leon snarled. "Just fucking drink the Hi-Potion."

The nausea was already creeping back and Cloud grimaced at the whole situation. This moron was practically asking to have his arm amputated and for what? To heal any internal bleeding that Cloud might or might not have?

"You would do that." Cloud said plainly, surprised.

"Don't get any ideas." Leon glared. "I just don't want to be stuck down here with TWO corpses." He drew a breath, "Besides, I promised Aerith that I wouldn't kill you…and watching you bleed out is as bad as shooting you in the face." He exhaled. "And unlike you, I keep my promises."

Cloud groaned. "You're a self righteous bastard."

"And you're a whiny bitch." Leon said with a tone of finality. "Drink it."

Cloud ground his molars trying to bite back, but the man's logic was making sense. He was feeling exponentially worse by the minute, and vomiting blood was a bad sign of things to come without treatment. As long as Leon's arm was under that much pressure, he was stable and not losing any blood.

But to accept that help from a guy who was probably going to need his arm cut away in order to get out of here…it was eating him alive.

"Please." Leon sounded deflated now. "I can't be pissed at you if you're dead."

Cloud exhaled heavily and took the offered item. "I'll go half."

Leon seemed to see that it was all the compromise he was going to get and relented. Cloud uncorked the item and took one long drink from it. The liquid was both cool and warm at the same time as it bubbled down his throat and hit his stomach. The relief was instantaneous and he audibly sighed as the pain faded. Careful to keep a good amount of the healing liquid in the bottle, he replaced the cork and placed it gently by the remaining water bottles.

A beat passed during which Cloud got his breathing back under control and Leon kept a wary eye on him, just in case the potion hadn't nipped the problem. As soon as they were both satisfied with the results, Cloud took a slow drink from the water.

"So why are you pissed at me?" He asked, looking to Leon.

Leon stared at him for a few seconds. "Maybe you have brain damage too."

Cloud deadpanned and Leon sighed.

"I care about Tifa, and Aerith is like my sister. You hurt them." He answered. "I know that you didn't mean to, but your actions caused them pain. I'm entitled to be pissed for that."

Cloud rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "I'm sorry."

Leon coughed again and some rubble was displaced behind them. Cloud twisted around to follow the noise. A few rocks had tumbled free from somewhere, and he backtracked their trajectory to the ceiling. Dust drifted down as the debris started to settle.

"I have a confession." He said, keeping his eyes on the shifting rocks.

"Shoot." Leon invited.

"This…It wasn't a meteor shower." Cloud's eyes darted back and forth, trying to find a way to verbalize what he'd been fearing this whole time.

He was met by silence.

Hearing the question in that silence, Cloud hung his head briefly and looked back to Leon. "It was Super Nova."

The admission hung in the air like smoke and he saw Leon's eyes incrementally widen as the implications of it set in.

Super Nova. Sephiroth's most powerful attack. It mimicked meteors and hit just as hard as the real thing. To an untrained eye, it was just a meteor shower. But Cloud had unconsciously recognized the slight pattern in the explosions, just before he blacked out.

"You told Aerith that you defeated Sephiroth. That he was gone." Leon said quietly.

"I thought he was." Cloud gripped the rock wall beside him. "I was certain that there was no way that he could survive our last battle—but darkness never really dies…does it."

Leon stared at him in hard silence for a full thirty seconds before looking past him, up at the ceiling, at his trapped arm, and back to Cloud.

"Get me out." He said evenly.

Cloud blinked, "What—"

"Your serious wounds are healed, you should have the juice to get this block off of me." He nodded toward the concrete over his arm. "Blast it off, lift it off, do what you have to."

"It's not—"

"Sephiroth is HERE." Leon enunciated loudly. "He is strolling around up there, with that sword and the ability to throw meteors around…We—" He pointed at himself and then jabbed a finger at Cloud's chest. "—have to get up there and help them fight him."

"Our swords are buried in here somewhere." Cloud pointed out. "Your arm is mangled, and I don't have the ether to cast a spell. This—"

"Do you have a knife?" Leon hissed.

Cloud immediately sensed what Leon was getting at and his gaze hardened. "No."

"I can still shoot with one arm." Leon glared back.

Cloud got to his feet in a crouch. "I'm not cutting off your arm, dumbass. And even if I did, there's no way to claw our way out of here."

Leon swallowed what was surely an impressive string of swear words before speaking again. "I've never asked you for anything, Cloud. Not for help, not for Aerith and Tifa. But I'm asking you right now…I can't let Radiant Garden be destroyed again." He tensed. "I can't."

He was losing his mind.

Cloud cursed and moved to the concrete. "I might be able to lift it. I'm not cutting your arm off. I promise you that. But I should be able to lift it enough for you to pull your arm out."

His earlier failure to do just that gnawed at his mind, but he pushed it back and returned to the familiar grip on the mass, getting his hands and feet into position.

"I won't be able to hold it long, so as soon as I say go, you pull." He instructed.

Leon bobbed his head once, rolling onto his side so he was facing the concrete. "Do it."

Cloud drew two deep breaths, swatting away the potential consequences of what he was about to do. Then, gritting his teeth and setting his feet, he shoved upward against the concrete. The block groaned under the assault and barely budged. Barely budged was better than nothing, so he pushed harder, getting his legs under the lift. The concrete held fast for a long second, and then an abrupt window of slack slipped through.

"GO!" Cloud grunted into the rock. "Go, go, go!"

Leon didn't need telling twice and shoved his other arm against the rock. The concrete had only been lifted an inch or so, but it was room enough for Leon to drag his arm through. The rough terrain on either side of his arm slashed deep through the pummeled skin, and blood snaked to the dirt as the skin was nearly peeled away.

Cloud dug deep against the mass, determined to keep it up until Leon's entire hand was clear. Blood flow returned harsh to the flattened limb and with it came reconnected nerve endings. Leon groaned as pain hit him hard and fast, but kept pulling. Cloud could already see the ungodly angles that his arm had been bent into.

Leon started to slow in his movements and Cloud panicked slightly. The pain was getting to him, limiting him.

"Keep going." Cloud snarled against the strain of the concrete, "Come on, Leon—Leon, hey!"

Leon started to roll away with his remaining effort, and Cloud saw his fingers slide out from under the concrete, still connected to his hand, which was miraculously still connected to his arm. Cloud immediately released the block and dropped to his knees. It felt like he'd shredded every muscle in his body, but he shelved that feeling as he knelt next to Leon.

Blood was gushing in earnest from a compound fracture just below Leon's elbow. The bone was jutting out of the skin, and it looked like it had sliced through the main veins around the wrist to reach the surface.

"Oh no." Cloud hissed, just staring at the grotesque wound.

Leon turned his head and saw the damage, quickly paling from the blood loss. "H-hi-potion would…come in h-handy now." He panted.

Cloud kicked his mind back into functioning and leaned over, snatching up the remaining half bottle of liquid. He uncorked the bottle with one fluid motion and turned the liquid over the six inch mess of blood, bone, and broken vein between Leon's palm and elbow.

Healing items were indiscriminate in their magic. Potions targeted the most serious injury at the site of the body and healed it first, working its way out from there. There was no picking and choosing what to heal besides splashing the liquid at the most serious wounds. In this instance, the Hi-Potion targeted the bone.

A second after it made contact with the gaping wound, the bone and bone fragments snapped back into place through the muscle and the ligaments, realigning the marrow and straightening the mangled limb. Leon yelped at the jarring motion, but was soon breathing heavily with whatever relief that warranted.

Cloud, however, felt sick as the healing power faded.

"No. Nonononono, dammit." He rambled. "It's still bleeding."

"What?" Leon slurred slightly as he looked for himself.

The healing item had only had the kick left to mend the broken bones, but hadn't even touched the shredded veins that were emptying blood all over the floor. Skin and muscle fiber hung openly from the laceration as red spilled in a pool around the limb.

Thinking fast, Cloud unlatched the strap that ran across his chest to his shoulder guard. Loosing it, he slung the thing off and snapped the belt out of the catch under the guard. Tossing the shoulder guard aside, he straightened the belt and jammed it under Leon's bicep, tugging it around. He wrapped the belt tight and cinched it through the clasp.

"Sorry." He grunted before pulling on the end of the belt.

The buckle ground against the belt as the material closed as tightly as it could around the muscle. Leon closed his eyes and his uninjured arm grabbed onto the nearest clump of rock in a vise, yells contained by a locked jaw.

Getting the makeshift tourniquet as tight as it would go, Cloud tied it off. It held, and the bleeding in Leon's wrist began to slow, but not enough. He was losing too much blood. Had already lost too much blood.

Mind bouncing from one desperate idea to the next, Cloud checked his ether levels. Movement and heightened blood pressure had bought him a few points, but not nearly enough to cast a Cure spell with the strength to seal the laceration. But he had enough to—

"This is going to hurt." He warned, acting before the idea could fully form itself.

Leon looked at him with glazed eyes. "Wh—"

"I'm going to cauterize the wound with a Fire spell." Cloud blurted. "Hold still."

Trying not to think about the fact that he was about to melt Leon's skin together to stop the bleeding, he gripped his arm under the tourniquet to hold the limb in place. Then, he dropped his other hand over the open wound, earning a groan of pain from Leon.

Forgive me, Cloud inwardly pleaded, and then gathered what little ether he'd recovered to cast the spell. "Fire."

The incantation caught and hissed to life.

Fire crawled down his hand and snaked across Leon's lower arm, swallowing the skin and the blood in a flicker of red flame.

Leon involuntarily slammed his head back against the rock, back arching as he screamed in agony. His knees drew up, but Cloud leaned his weight against his arm and let him thrash. The scream reverberated off the jagged walls of debris and hurt Cloud's ears, but he kept his eyes on the forearm. He could smell burning flesh and the iron in the boiling blood, but it was over as quickly as it started.

The spell faded and Leon's screams lapsed into breathless wheezing. Cloud swatted away the steam and inspected what he'd done. The skin was smoking and charred red, but the flesh had sloughed together to seal the broken veins, staunching the bleeding.

Utterly drained at the revelation, he sat back on his haunches and tried to breathe normally. Leon's chest was heaving and his limbs were twitching, eyes screwed closed and sweat pouring down his face. But he was free.

Wiping his own sweat from his face, Cloud glanced around the debris. Nothing had moved. Nothing was collapsing or toppling in on them. Now they were both free, but still with nowhere to go. And at what cost?

"Okay." He exhaled the word, "Okay."

He picked up the first bottle of water he could reach and turned some of it over the steaming burn wound. The lukewarm water trickled over the raw, exposed skin and Leon flinched, gagging slightly at the sensation, but he had regained his faculties.

Cloud checked to make sure there were five fingers still in their sockets before lifting the water bottle again. "Here." He held it out.

Leon was fading fast. The pain alone would have driven anyone else into unconsciousness, but this crazy bastard was clinging to awareness by willpower alone. Now he was adding blood loss and shock to the list. Dehydration wouldn't help.

"Th—" Leon couldn't form words at this point.

Cloud held the water. "Okay." He rambled again, tilting the container against Leon's lips and letting gravity pull the water into his mouth.

Leon managed two swallows before leaning away. Cloud retracted the water and finished off the bottle himself in one drink. Dropping the empty bottle, he checked again to make sure the arm wasn't bleeding before allowing himself to feel a little relief.

A voice cut through the rock. "Hello?"

Both men jerked slightly at the sound and Cloud straightened.

"Hey!" The voice yelled again. "Is there somebody down there? I heard screaming!"

The voice was garbled through the debris, but it sounded like Yuffie. And it sounded like it was coming from the other air pocket.

Cloud cupped his hands around his mouth. "Here!"

Some clunking rocks nearby sounded.

"Where are you!" Yuffie yelled again. "Cid, over here!"

"We're here!" Cloud shouted in response, pulling up into a squat again. He glanced to Leon, who was barely conscious at this point, and tapped his jaw to draw him back to reality. "I'll be right back."

He crawled and staggered through the crevice to the other open space and maneuvered toward the columns of light, where sharp flash lights were dancing in and out of sight now.

"Down here!" He yelled into the columns.

"Cloud?" Cid sounded close. "Where are ya?"

Skin briefly moved into view through the hole in the ceiling, and then Yuffie's face appeared. "I found him! Cloud! Cid, I found him!"

There was more chaotic movement and harsh flash light beamed down at him. Cloud winced at the sudden light after so long in the dark and heard Cid swear loudly.

"Are you in one piece?" The older man called down.

"Yeah, and Leon's down here too." He answered. "He's in bad shape."

"Squ—" Yuffie started, but Cid cut in.

"If you can keep clear, we can move these rocks." He barked.

Cloud nodded, "Okay. Hurry up, he's lost a lot of blood."

Some kind of power tool roared to life on the other side of the wall, and Cloud took that as his cue. Backing away from the lights, he doubled back through the short tunnel to where Leon hadn't moved. He didn't respond when Cloud bent down next to him. Cloud smacked his side and then shook his shoulder.

"Leon. Hey, they found us." He informed.

Leon dragged himself out of oblivion and blinked lethargically. "—found—"

"Cid and the others." Cloud nodded. "Back through the way I got here. They're drilling down now." He pointed toward the sound of crumbling rock. "Can you move?"

Leon breathed deliberately for a moment. "—guess I—have to."

A sarcastic mule to the bitter end, Cloud thought dryly, moving to his side and grabbing his other arm. He quickly but carefully tugged Leon into an upright position. Leon curled his pulverized arm around his torso and Cloud pulled his other arm over his shoulders. He held onto that wrist with one hand and moved his other arm around Leon's back, taking as much of his weight as he could without compromising his balance.

After an unspoken countdown, together they got to their feet, still at a crouch, and with Leon immediately slackening against Cloud's shoulder.

Setting his jaw, Cloud led the way as they maneuvered through the crevice. "I'd like to hear you talk shit now." He grunted ruefully.

Leon murmured something along the lines of "shut up", keeping one foot ahead of the other as they shuffled into the first space.

Light flooded down through the enlarged hole, and Cloud blinked several times in rapid succession until he could see across the open air. Cid was working a jackhammer against the large rock blocking their way, and Yuffie and Tifa were clawing at the smaller rocks, practically tearing them out of the way.

The jackhammer chugged quiet and Cid pushed it aside, sliding his feet forward and dropping into the hole. Dust billowed up as his boots met the uneven debris and he squinted in the darkness, spotting Cloud and Leon crouched near the adjacent wall.

Then the old pilot was across the cave in two strides. "You two alive?"

Cloud nodded, feeling drained now that help had arrived. "Mostly."

Cid glanced him up and down to confirm and then moved to Leon. "Shit—"

"Watch his arm." Cloud warned, legs wavering slightly as the adrenaline receded.

The older man inspected the limb and nodded, moving closer. "I'll take him."

Leon managed to lift his head, "Cid—"

"Go ahead." Cid gestured toward the hole, sliding under Leon's arm as Cloud slipped out from under it.

Leon sagged, finally reaching his threshold, and Cid buckled slightly. In one short motion, he got his other arm under Leon's knees and effectively scooped him off his feet. Cloud reached out a steadying hand just in case, but Cid shifted his grip and got a good hold on the slackening body in his arms.

Satisfied, Cloud turned and limped his way toward the hole, toward the light. As he got closer, he could hear people rushing back and forth, calling out things to one another, as well as sirens and the sound of heavy machinery moving debris. He reached the edge of the hole and Tifa dropped down next to him.

"Thank God." She threw her arms around him and her tear-streaked cheek hit his jaw. Her entire body trembled and Cloud was momentarily paralyzed by surprise.

"Are you hurt?" Tifa asked, pulling back and putting her hands on his chest. "Cloud, are you with me?"

He blinked once and looked at her. "Y-yeah." He cleared his throat, "Cid's got Leon."

Tifa's entire body screamed that she dart back there to see for herself, but she just nodded and stayed by his side. "Come on, let me help you."

Cloud felt he was perfectly capable of walking out of this Hell on his own, but as soon as she moved into the support position, relief sang through his joints. He surrendered some of the control and Tifa guided them out of the hole, stepping carefully up onto flat, solid ground.

Dawn was breaking across Radiant Garden, and the fresh air was so cool and sweet that Cloud nearly hit his knees. But Tifa was there to prevent that, and she helped him navigate away from the hole and to the open ambulances that were waiting. It was such an assault on the senses after over an hour underground that he was dizzy for a second.

He barely caught a glimpse of pink skirt before Aerith was in front of him.

"Cloud!" She sobbed, face ashen and her eyes glittering with tears.

"I'm okay." He assured her, taking his balance back to relieve Tifa.

Aerith stepped up and put her hands on his shoulders, then up his neck, and then down his arms as if to assess for herself that he was in one piece. Her eyes snagged on his bloody knees, cut up arm, and general dishevelment, but she seemed convinced that he wasn't on the verge of death.

"Leon—" She started, looking up at him.

"Cid is helping him." Cloud nodded toward the hole, looking back with the two women to see Cid carrying Leon up onto the pavement.

In the open light, Leon looked awful. Pale, bloody, and his head had fallen back against Cid's arm, baring his neck long. Tifa and Aerith audibly gasped at the sight, and Aerith touched Tifa's arm. The dark haired woman needed no further prompting and shot forward, crossing from Cloud to Leon and Cid.

"He's okay." Cloud told Aerith before she could implode. "Blood loss got to him."

Aerith's eyes were the size of dinner plates as she watched Cid tote Leon to the next nearest ambulance, Tifa right alongside him. Aerith returned her gaze to Cloud. After a beat, she put her arms around him and pulled him close, but not close enough to jar broken ribs, for which Cloud was grateful.

"I was so scared." Aerith quivered, pressing her face against his neck. "You both scared me so badly."

Cloud moved his arms around her back. "I'm sorry."

Aerith withdrew, wiping at her eyes. "Come on, let's get you to the hospital."

The sun was chasing away the night sky and Cloud blinked back toward the scene. Tifa had climbed into the ambulance with the medics and Leon, and Cloud just glimpsed her face as Cid closed the vehicle's doors. The sirens whirred as the ambulance began to pick its way through the rubble toward the clear road.

The parking garage had been obliterated. Seeing it from the outside, Cloud could hardly believe that he and Leon had survived the blast. Smoke was also rising from several nearby buildings, and the damage to this sect of Radiant Garden was extensive. Sephiroth had done this.

His chest constricted slightly and he didn't struggle as Aerith led him into the ambulance. He simply didn't have the energy to fight her on this one, and he had put her through enough Hell in the past few hours. He'd give her this. The ambulance ride was rough and exasperating because of the damaged roads, and they ended up sedating him halfway into a coma, but the drugs did nothing to dim the reality of the situation.

Sephiroth had done this.

**..:-X-:..**

It was raining two days later when Cloud woke up in the hospital. He had woken up a few times already, but this was the first time he felt like staying awake. And it royally sucked.

Every inch of him felt like he'd gone ten rounds with a cement block…and the block won every round. He hated being in the hospital. It was always cold and always smelled like rubbing alcohol and medical plastic. Every room was some annoying pastel color…and there was usually some horrid painting of flowers…He blinked a few times and had barely glanced around the room when Aerith leaned into view.

"Hi." She greeted softly, hands clasped behind her back.

He swallowed and tested his throat, "Hi."

She looked tired, but otherwise fine. The rest of the room was…pastel…and the privacy curtain hanging between him and the other patient was drawn out.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

His arms and legs felt like sand had been poured into them, as well as in his chest, but nothing directly hurt. There was an IV plugged into his arm, which he had to immediately talk himself out of tearing out—he hated needles—but otherwise it was all just bruises and small bandages.

"Fine." He answered, throat scratchy.

She poured a glass of water and handed it to him. "Do you remember what happened?"

Too much so. Flashes of 'meteor's and the smell of dirt and concrete and the sound of Leon screaming—

"Yeah." He replied, lifting a hand to rub his eyes. "How long—"

"Two days." She answered.

Maybe he had already known that, but it was good to hear he was right.

"Where's—" He started.

"NOOO!" Yuffie wailed melodramatically.

Cloud looked around for wherever the girl had hidden herself, but Aerith just sighed, closing her eyes and pointing toward the privacy curtain.

"That's not possible!" Yuffie's voice carried. "You cheated!"

There was a low groan. "Shh, keep it down." Leon's voice.

"But—" Yuffie didn't heed his advice. "That's not even a word! What is that? Anapha—ana—anafilafel—"

"Anaphylactic." Leon remarked.

Aerith looked to Cloud apologetically and tugged open the curtain. Cloud could see Leon in the other patient bed of the room. He was sitting up—still looked like Hell warmed over—and his right arm was in the most uncomfortable looking brace that Cloud had ever seen. Other than that, bruises and bandages like Cloud. Yuffie had perched herself on the edge of his bed, looking down with a woebegone expression at the scrabble board across the sliding table.

"You made that up." Yuffie accused.

"It's an allergic reaction." Leon pointed out. "Look it up."

Yuffie huffed. "…You're stupid."

Aerith cleared her throat and they both looked over.

Scrabble forgotten, Yuffie beamed. "Hi, ya, Cloud. Welcome back to the land of the living."

Cloud looked at her and then Leon, who gave Cloud's bruised and scratched-up face a once over.

"You look gorgeous." Was the dry greeting.

Aerith straightened her dress. "I'm so glad you're both awake now. It was pretty frightening there for a while."

"Yeah," Yuffie snorted. "We were about to unplug you, Cloud."

Cloud deadpanned at that as Leon snorted and Aerith rolled her eyes.

"I see they saved your arm." Cloud replied belatedly.

Leon lifted the limb and Cloud could actually see the plates and screws holding the bones together. It was cringe-worthy.

"Go-go-gadget arm." The man remarked with a smirk.

Aerith motioned for Leon to put his arm down and looked to Cloud. "They did reconstructive surgery. Every bone under the elbow was broken. They said—they said you did good with the whole—" She swallowed, "—cauterization. A few blood transfusions and rounds of antibiotics and you're both fit as fiddles."

"Fiddle!" Yuffie hailed, picking up some of her letter slates and moving them onto the board. "Ha! Suck on that!"

Leon picked up two letters and set them on the board, pointing at his word proudly.

Yuffie grimaced, "Squall, you're disgusting."

He snickered and Cloud leaned toward Aerith. "Is he…on pain killers?"

"Oh ho ho yeah." Aerith nodded, "It was amusing for the first ten minutes, but now it's just…scary." She looked back to Cloud. "The doctor said that if you behave, you'll be released this afternoon. They need to keep Leon a little longer to make sure the skin grafts on his arm are okay." She laced her fingers together. "Do you need anything?"

The hallway door opened and Tifa stepped in, arms laden with paper bags. Yuffie glanced over, saw Tifa, and immediately rounded back around, threw her hands in the air and watched…whatever she was expecting Leon to do.

"Hey!" Leon threw up his good arm, "Tifa's here!"

Yuffie broke out into giggles, high-fiving him. Tifa set the bags down, walking over to the bedside.

"I told you to stop making him do that." She told Yuffie.

"But it's funny." Yuffie cackled as Tifa rubbed Leon's shoulder.

"Hey." She greeted and then looked down at the scrabble board. "Ugh, Yuffie, that is filthy—"

"He did it!" Yuffie pointed.

Aerith got Tifa's attention. "Did you find everything all right?"

"Yeah." She bobbed her head absently and then smiled when she saw Cloud. "Hey, you're awake."

Cloud lifted one shoulder, "Apparently."

"How long?" Tifa asked, moving around Leon's bed and sitting on the other side, across from Yuffie.

"Uh…five minutes." He replied. "What's all that?" He nodded toward the bags.

"Clothes." She answered. "When you two leave, it'd be best if you weren't naked."

Aerith snickered and Yuffie laughed at Leon's confused expression, having missed the joke because he was focusing on the flower painting on the wall.

Cloud looked around at them. They were all okay. Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie were up fine, and Leon was…well—They were healing. But that was just luck. It was pure luck that they were all even alive right now. Undoubtedly others—civilians and innocent bystanders-had been injured or killed in Sephiroth's random attack.

It hadn't been a strike of violence for no reason. This was a warning shot. Sephiroth was still out there, just taunting Cloud with this. Tearing the ground out from under him and endangering those he cared about just to make a point.

Never again.

"Come on, Yuffie." Aerith picked up her jacket. "Cid won't be happy if we're late again."

"But I'm winning!" Yuffie whined.

"Pick it up later." Aerith shook her head, "We've got fires to put out. Tifa, are you—"

"Yeah, I'm staying." Tifa waved her off, and Cloud saw that both of her hands were heavily bandaged. "Have fun."

Yuffie ruffled Leon's hair. "I'll be back for round two."

He swatted her away with his good hand. "Beat it."

Aerith looked to Cloud, touching his arm. "Get some rest…and behave, please."

He blinked at her. "I always behave."

She chuckled at that and gave his hand a squeeze before leaving with Yuffie. The door closed after them and Tifa slid the rolling table away from Leon.

"That leaves me with Thing One and Thing Two." She smirked. "How are you guys feeling?"

Leon reclined back onto the pillows. "Awesome." He said genuinely.

Well, if Cloud was pumped that full of painkillers, Cloud bet he'd feel awesome too.

"And you?" Tifa prompted, looking to Cloud.

She was being this cheery because she thought they were both going to die, Cloud thought. After the novelty of their survival ran out, she wouldn't be this friendly with him. But it was nice while it lasted…Almost felt like they were back to normal friends again.

"Tired." He answered honestly. Honesty could only help him at this point.

"Same here." Tifa stood and stretched. "We've all been running like crazy people…search and rescue…Clearing the roads…It's been chaos."

Leon fidgeted with one of the screws in his wrist and Cloud looked at him. Had he told them what Cloud said in the rubble, about Sephiroth being behind this? Normally, Cloud wouldn't think he had, but in his current…state…He wouldn't put it past him.

"Quit it." Tifa spotted Leon's fidgeting. "Leave it alone. Babe, stop."

Leon huffed and ceased the fidgeting. Tifa shook her head and walked over to Cloud.

"Did Aerith tell you about the surgery?" She asked.

Cloud looked at her. "She said he had reconstructive—"

"No." Tifa lifted a hand, "You had surgery."

"I—" Cloud looked at himself, but the patient hospital garb told him nothing.

"You had internal bleeding." She explained slowly. "Well, you had HAD it but it had stopped…"

"Leon had a Hi-Potion—" He commented.

"Right…" She nodded, "They did a non-invasive procedure and siphoned out the blood…but you lost a lot of blood. I don't know how you were still conscious when we found you guys."

Honestly, Cloud wasn't really sure either. "Adrenaline, I guess." He shrugged.

"Well…" Tifa looked like she was struggling with herself. "Thank you." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Emotion unexpectedly filled her face and she leaned forward, hugging him carefully.

"Thank you for keeping each other alive." She murmured. "And for not killing each other."

Cloud awkwardly returned the embrace until she sat up.

"Yeah, well…" He recovered, "He was stuck under concrete. It wouldn't have been a fair fight."

"I'll fight you right now." Leon grumbled from across the room.

Tifa chuckled and exhaled to diffuse the emotion that had crept up on her. "Right."

She went to sort through the items in the bags that she'd brought, and Cloud's mind drifted. He was going to be released in a few hours if he passed the doctors' little tests…but there really wasn't time for that. He should be out there now…finding Sephiroth and…and making him pay for this.

This was never going to be over.

The idea was exhausting.

**..:-X-:..**

Cloud managed to get one arm through the sleeve of his shirt before the pain in his ribs made him stall. He hissed lightly and grabbed the side of the bed, staying on his feet as the room stopped spinning around him. He'd managed to get half dressed, but the shirt was proving to be malicious.

Aerith and Yuffie were still on shift with Cid. Tifa had fallen asleep on the couch, curled on her side with one arm over her eyes to block the light of the room, which a nurse had dimmed when she came in earlier to check on Cloud. He couldn't tell if Leon was awake or not, but he hoped the drugs had finally worn him down to sleep.

Getting his breath back, Cloud maneuvered his other arm through the sleeve, but couldn't quite get the shirt over his head. He didn't have time to lollygag though. If the girls got back before he left…they would never let him go.

He had thought this Sephiroth business was behind him. He had ended it and gotten past it. But now that…that bastard was clawing his way back into Cloud's life, just when he was getting settled in with his friends in Radiant Garden. He actually had friends now, and Sephiroth was jeopardizing them all over again. Cloud couldn't afford that.

"Do you need help?"

Cloud cringed and turned to see Leon looking at him flatly, eyes half open but still awake. He swallowed and shoved his head through the hole in the shirt. Soreness tore through his shoulders, but he choked it back and pulled the shirt down straight.

"Thought you were asleep." He mumbled, eying Tifa.

The woman didn't stir and Leon squinted one eye. "I woke up."

Cloud had already gotten his pants and boots on, and propped one foot up on a plastic chair to tie one of them. "Are you still stoned?"

Leon remained deadpan for a long moment. "What?"

He tied the other boot and straightened again, grimacing and moving his arm around his ribs at the jarring motion. "Never mind."

Silence hung between them as Cloud gathered up the rest of his things. They had found his sword at the edge of the collapse site, in relatively good condition all things considered. It would be easy to swing by the collections zone and pick it up on his way out. He hadn't heard if they had found Leon's Gunblade yet, but odds are Leon would flay them all alive until they did.

"You're leaving again." It was a neutral statement.

Cloud looked at the other man. "I have to."

Leon looked contemplative for a moment. "I know."

Cloud squinted one eye, sure that he'd misheard. "You do?"

Leon sat up a little, expression tightening as his own ribs were tested. "I don't like it, but I get it now."

Cloud eyed him for a second. "If that's all it took for you to get it, I would have dropped a parking garage on you months ago."

Leon smirked ruefully at that and a beat passed.

"Where are you going first?" He finally asked.

Cloud lifted his shoulders. "I…don't know."

Leon nodded once and they both looked to Tifa, who hadn't moved. "She won't understand…I can't make her understand…or Aerith…about this."

Some of the constriction in Cloud's chest eased slightly. No snarling remarks or dirty looks…No accusations or guilt trips…Leon was just letting him leave. No fight. Cloud tried to wrap his mind around that: he had an ally here.

"Yeah…" Cloud looked to Tifa with a wince. "Maybe someday though."

Leon sat up a little more, looking like he had half a mind to climb out of bed himself. Cloud was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to do that yet, but Leon soon stopped and gestured toward the bags.

"In the pocket of my jacket…"

Cloud crossed over to the bags and tugged one of them open. He found Leon's jacket and the ring of keys inside the pocket. He turned to hand them over, but Leon waved him off.

"Take it." He said, sitting back again.

Cloud eyed the keys. "For what?"

"Red and black Gummi in the old hangar, near the back." Leon replied.

"Why are—" He started.

"It's fully stocked and fully loaded." Leon talked over him. "Full tank of gas too."

Cloud looked from the keys to Leon. "Your ship."

"Beats you stealing one to get out of here." Leon snarked. "Besides, it's a military Gummi. Anything you pick up is going to be like a Smart Car compared to mine."

Cloud held the keys in one hand and exhaled. "Thank you."

"Yeah, don't turn into a woman about it." Leon shifted on his back. "Just promise me something."

Tifa moved in her sleep but didn't wake and Cloud looked to him.

"You would trust a promise from me?" He remarked.

"Don't get cute." Leon mumbled. "Promise to bring it back with no bloodstains in it, all right? Or I'll kick your ass."

Cloud snorted and carefully pocketed the keys."I'll do my best."

Leon nodded, "All right. Now get out of here before you try to hug me or something."

Cloud shook his head and gingerly made his way to the door. "There aren't enough Gummis in the galaxy to make me try that."

"Good. Keep it that way."

Cloud opened the door, saw no one outside, and glanced back. "For the record, you're still a dick."

Leon grunted, "And you're still a bitch. Go."

Cloud rolled his eyes, took one last look at Tifa, and slipped out. He closed the door soundlessly behind him and started walking down the hall.

Come nightfall, Aerith and Yuffie would return to find him gone. Tifa would wake up and be hurt that he'd disappeared again. Aerith would be upset. Then Tifa would get angry. And Leon probably wouldn't say anything. By then, Cloud would be halfway to another world. He had no idea how long he would be gone.

The keys clinked in his pocket as he made his way down the stairs to the back exit of the hospital. But—he thought dryly, sneaking across the darkening parking lot—they had forgiven him once. He would hope that they would again, and if all else failed, maybe Leon wouldn't be such a prick about it this time.

Maybe.


End file.
